I Have Lived a Thousand Years
Page 18
APRIL 30, 1945 We are liberated from the trains by the U.S. Army at the Seeshaupt train station in Bavaria
MAY 7, 1945 Germany surrenders. Church bells ring
MID-MAY, 1945 We are taken to Flack Kaserne, a transit camp near Munich
MID-JUNE, 1945 We arrive back in Somorja, now called Šamorin, my hometown in Czechoslovakia
JULY 1945 We receive news of my father’s death
SEPTEMBER 1945 I am back at school. My mother, brother, and I make preparations to emigrate to the U.S.A.
APPENDIX B
Highlights of Holocaust Chronology
JANUARY 30, 1933 Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany
SEPTEMBER 15, 1935 Citizenship and racial laws are announced at Nazi party rally in Nüremberg
MARCH 13, 1938 Austria is annexed by Germany
NOVEMBER 9–10, 1938 Kristallnacht: Nazis burn synagogues and loot Jewish homes and businesses in nationwide pogroms called “Kristallnacht” (“Night or Broken Glass”). Nearly 30,000 German and Austrian Jewish men are deported to concentration camps. Many Jewish women are jailed
MARCH 15, 1939 German troops invade Czechoslovakia
SEPTEMBER 1, 1939 Germany invades Poland. World War II begins
JUNE 22, 1941 German army invades the Soviet Union. The Einsatzgruppen, mobile killing squads, begin mass murder of Jews, Gypsies, and Communist leaders
DECEMBER 7, 1941 Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
DECEMBER 11, 1941 Germany declares war on the United States
JANUARY 20, 1942 Wannsee Conference: Nazi government leaders meet at Wannsee near Berlin to discuss the plan for the mass murder of Jews, called “the final solution to the Jewish Question”
1942 Nazi “extermination” camps located in occupied Poland at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, and Majdanek-Lublin begin mass murder of Jews in gas chambers
APRIL 19-May 16, 1943 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto stage an uprising
MARCH 19, 1944 German troops occupy Hungary
MAY 15—JULY 9, 1944 Over 430,000 Hungarian Jews are deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau where most of them are killed in gas chambers
JUNE 6, 1944 D-Day: Allied powers invade western Europe
JULY 20, 1944 German officers fail in their attempt to assassinate Hitler
JANUARY 17, 1945 Death march: Nazis evacuate Auschwitz and drive prisoners on foot toward Germany. Large numbers die en route
JANUARY 27, 1945 Soviet troops enter Auschwitz
APRIL 15, 1945 British troops liberate Bergen-Belsen, and U.S. troops liberate Dachau, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, and other concentration camps
APRIL 30, 1945 Hitler commits suicide
MAY 7, 1945 Germany surrenders. The war ends in Europe
NOVEMBER 1945-October 1946 War crimes trials are held at Nüremberg, Germany
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Appellplatz—ah-PELL-plahtz—central square of camp (literally, place of roll call)—GERMAN
Auschwitz—OWSH-vits—concentration camp located in what is now Os’wieçim, Poland
Blockälteste—BLOCK-ell-tess-teh—head of barracks (literally, block elder)—GERMAN
Dunajska Streda—DU-nice-kah STREH-dah—town in Slovakia
Dunaszerdahely—DU-nah-SER-dah-hay—Hungarian name for Dunajska Streda
Ellike—ELL-I-keh—diminutive, affectionate form of name Elli; Ellikém, my little Elli—HUNGARIAN
Hasid—hah-SID—member of a pious Jewish sect—HEBREW
Heil Hitler!—hile HIT-ler—Hail, Hitler!—GERMAN
Herr Offizier—hair aw-fee-Tseer—Sir Officer (proper usage in addressing German military staff)—GERMAN
Kapo—KAH-poh—head of work detail—GERMAN, from Italian capo, head
Kommando—koh-MAHN-doh—work detail—GERMAN
Lagerälteste—LAH-ger-ELL-tess-teh—head of camp (literally, camp elder)—GERMAN
Liebling—LEEP-ling—sweetheart—GERMAN
Liquidation—LIK-vee-dah-TSIOHN—dissolution, slang for extermination, killing—GERMAN
Lódz—loodg or lahts—city in central Poland
Los!—lohss—Get going!—GERMAN
marschieren—mar-Shee-ren—to march—GERMAN
Oberscharführer—OH-ber-shahr-FEE-rer—senior platoon leader (military rank)—GERMAN
Planierung—plah-NEER-oong—leveling of ground—GERMAN
Plaszow—PLAH-shov—concentration camp near Krakow, Poland
Raus!—rowss—Get out!—GERMAN
razzia—police raid—HUNGARIAN, originally from Arabic
Revier—reh-VEER—infirmary—GERMAN
Ruhe!—ROO-eh—Quiet!—GERMAN
Šamorín—SHA-taw-raw-i-yaw-oo-i-hay—town in north-eastern Hungary
Schutzstaffel—SHUTZ-shtah-fell—elite military and police unit of the Nazi party (literally, protective squadron)—GERMAN
Shaharit—shah-khah-REET—morning prayer—HEBREW
shiva—SHIH-vuh—seven-day period of mourning in Jewish religious practice—HEBREW
Somorja—Shaw-mawr-yaw—Hungarian name for Šamorin
SS—ess-ESS—see Schutzstaffel
Tattersall—TAT-ter-sawl—London horse market founded by horseman Richard Tattersall
Weltschmerz—VELT-shmairts—sadness about the world’s evils (literally, world pain)—GERMAN
Zählappell—TSAIL-ah-PELL—roll call—GERMAN
LIVIA BITTON-JACKSON, born Elli L. Friedmann in Czechoslovakia, was thirteen when she, her mother, and her brother were taken to Auschwitz. They were liberated in 1945 and came to the United States on a refugee boat in 1951. She received a Ph.D. in Hebrew culture and Jewish history from New York University. Dr. Bitton-Jackson has been a professor of history at City University of New York for thirty-seven years. Her previous books include Elli: Coming of Age in the Holocaust, which received the Christopher Award, the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award, and the Jewish Heritage Award. Dr. Bitton-Jackson lives in Israel with her husband, children, and grandchildren.
About the photo on the front cover:
This picture was reproduced from a glass plate that served as a negative of the photo taken of Elli in the spring of 1944 by a Nazi photographer right before her deportation to Auschwitz. After she returned from the death camps, Elli, while searching for pictures of her father and aunt who perished, found this negative of herself among hundreds dumped in the backyard of the photographer’s deserted home. For more than fifty-two years she has carefully guarded the glass plate.